If you came of age during the 1950's not at all likely if you're
part of the target audience for "Hulk" you probably got tired of
hearing the concluding line of so many sci-fi movies from the
works of James Whaley to the adaptations of Robert Louis
Stevenson: "Perhaps mankind was not meant to tamper with the
laws of nature." Not such good advice: after all nature is neither
neutral nor terminally beneficent. If we did not tamper with
nature's laws, we'd be traveling to Europe by sailboat and
communicating with smoke signals. Ah, but there's a difference,
one that's cited right now in the headlines. Is it right to human
beings to tamper with cells for the purpose of cloning other
human beings? While politicians debate, Ang Lee's film could
conceivably be used by the White House for ammunition
against tampering. "Hulk," the not-so-jolly green giant who
unfortunately bears a resemblance to Shrek, is a mammoth
being with superhuman powers, able to resist bullets and
possibly even a nuclear blast. Does he use his powers like
Superman, Captain Marvel, or Wonder Woman? Alas, no. His
aim, like that of the near-zombies in Danny Boyle's unscary
horror pic "28 Days Later," is simple vengeance against those
who torment. Like a Frankenstein monster who could be gentle
to those who treat him well, Hulk has issues with the military
and most of all with his own father. Some of the mostly teen
audience of comic-book fans who should put "Hulk" at the top fo
the box office list on opening weekend should find common
cause with the anti-hero whose ultimate battle is with the man
who abused him, his own dad. The theme of a female research
worker who has her own reasons for feeling distant from her
father should resonate with the young women who take their
seats for this summer blockbuster.

Unlike Danny Boyle who makes little attempt to develop the
characters in his "28 Days Later," Ang Lee a visually
imaginative director whose resume is filled with arthouse works
like "Sense and Sensibility" (about newly impoverished sisters,
one forced to suppress her feelings of love), "The Ice Storm" (a
chronicle of repressed and unleashed sexuality) and
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (a stunning mixture of
romance, epic, and martial arts) puts as much care into
exploring Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) as he does in his scenes of
mayhem. A scientist (Paul Kersey) dabbling in genetic
modification passes his converted genes on to his the newborn
son of his wife, Edith (Cara Buono). During the boy's first four
years of life, an incident occurs that is so traumatic that he has
repressed its memory and accepts the view that both of his
parents had died. So repressed is this Bruce that he is unable
to take his relationship with his co-researcher, Betty Ross
(Jennifer Connelly) to the next logical step. When Bruce
receives what should have been a fatal dose of gamma
radiation but which he survives thanks to his mutated genes,
feelings of inner rage emerge from his repressed, nerdish shell
transforming him into Hulk a giant who can leap tall buildings
with a single bound and laugh at bullets that bounce from his
Charles-Atlas body like badminton cocks.

Though Ang Lee uses computer generated graphics to create
the monster, he should have no problem in that he is, after all,
following the conventions of comic books. Taking the comic-
book sensibility to its limit, Lee uses the imagination previously
exhibited in "Crouching Tiger" to create split screens and wipes
to stunning effect, but never at the cost of focusing on the
logical result of Bruce Banner's newly released energy.

Though "Hulk" is an original, the film borrows of course from
James Whaley's Frankenstein monster, from Robert Louis
Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and from Merian C.
Cooper's 1933 film "King Kong," even from Philip Kaufman's
"The Right Stuff." While the themes are interwoven, Ang Lee
has really set down two movies: the better one involves the
struggles against dad by Bruce, whose father, played by Nick
Nolte, not only unwittingly causes the boy's mutation but even
worse, stretches his limitless ego by pushing the lad to greater
misdeeds) and by Betty, whose cold, calculating father played
by Sam Elliott represents the essence of military thinking, one
which served the mustachioed fellow well in earning him a
generalship.

Surprisingly, the best scene occurs in the epilogue of the final
minutes that finds a South America guerrilla suddenly
challenged by an angry man while stealing medicines from a
poor family. "Hulk" is still Lee in his "Sense and Sensibility"
mode but the great director uses his imagination well to appeal
to a much broader community.